Sensei's Divining Top - Slowing down games since and annoying folks since 2004.
Mana Crypt - Are we playing Commander? Yes. Are we rich? Apparently. Then of course we're playing it.
Thought Vessel - Helps to give ramp us. Flavour text works well with Land Tax.
Thaumatic Compass
/Spires of Orazca
- Not really ramp. It's either land drop replacement or land catch-up which makes it perfect for mono-white. The flipside also gives us more protection for our Planeswalkers and ourselves with Spires
, a Maze of Ith that can also tap for .
Archivist of Oghma - Every time an opponent searches their library we get a card and one life. It's a good thing fetch lands, tutors, and ramp aren't things in Commander or we'd draw a lot of cards. Flash is a nice asset. card:Archivist of Ogham|Archivist can stay safe in hand until someone searches. Or can a surprise blocker. In rare situations we can cast her at the end of an opponent's turn so we can attack.
Stoneforge Mystic - Efficiently searches up our equipment. It's main purpose is to get and cheapen Helm of the Host from 4 to 2 and give it flash. If you're not playing Helm of the Host Stoneforge Mystic can be replaced by Open the Armory or Steelshaper's Gift.
Oath of Gideon - Gives two bodies to block and all Planeswalkers get to take an extra point of damage, or may be to stick around after a hit and being ticked down.
Peacekeeper - The greatest mystery of the Peacekeeper...why does she have any power? She let's us stall with unfriendly board states, either to tick our Walkers or find an answer. Unfortunately, her updated rules text has changed "bury" to "sacrifice". If it had stayed the same we could keep adding a shield counter from Elspeth Resplendent every turn and avoid paying the .
Smuggler's Share - This card will be a standard for any Commander deck playing white before too long. At we're getting a chance to draw a card if an opponent drew two or more and that stacks for each opponent. If someone decides to ramp or play and crack a fetch a land we'll get a treasure. Might be overselling this but it really feels like a white Rhystic Study.
Urza Assembles the Titans - Wasn't really what category this could fit into. As stated up in the "White Walkers" and "Exclusions" sections Deploy the Gatewatch doesn't really work for us because we just don't have the density of Planeswalkers to conistantly get one Walker off it let alone two. For this reason, more often than not, the first chapter is useless to us. BUT this saga has the Dominaria United ability Read Ahead so we can jump right into the second chapter allowing us to put a Planeswalker into play that costs or less. For us this is all of them except Big Ugin. The final chapter can break the game wide open for us because we'll use all of our walkers twice. Depending on the situation we could start here and just go over the top of every one ticking up and then ultimating all our Walkers. We don't usually reside in Magical Christmas Land so most of the time we'll be starting on chapter two.
Ephemerate - We can protect one of our creatures, or Planeswalkers in creature mode (not just Gideons thanks toLuxior) , from targeted removal and get to use an Enter the Battlefield ability during the upkeep. The most obvious thing we can do is blink our Djeru to get a little more searching done.
Gideon's Triumph - Planeswalkers are incredibly vulnerable permanents. This card allows us to play into that problem. We're also playing a lot of Gideon Planeswalkers forcing a second sacrifice. There's no guarantee we'll get to kill the creature we want but for a potential two creatures is a pretty good rate.
Cataclysm *list* - Printed back in the day when there were no Planewalkers and Cataclysm *list* names what is going to be sacrificed. We even knock everyone's permanents down to 4. Except for Walkers, those are left untouched. We'll also be able to float mana and cast a few spells after the wipe.
Cut a Deal - Karn, Scion of Urza was a bust as a card draw engine. to draw a card & exile a card and maybe get a chance to do it again just didn't work. Back to the drawing board and there's this card. On the high end we'll draw three for and each opponent gets one card. With the high number of board wipes in our deck it'll be a tough to negotiate with Secret Rendezvous.
Settle the Wreckage - Exiling is good. Replacing them with basics lands isn't so bad. As stated many times Commander has some very greedy land bases and the attacking player probably won't get full value. However, this only affects one player and it only exiles the attacking creatures . Worth a spot but its place is tentative.
Hallowed Burial - A criminally undervalued wrath effect. Yes, the creatures can be searched up again, but they have to be cast again as well. Essentially, two spells. Compare that to the better reanimation spells go straight from the graveyard to the battlefield. Mass restriction are also out of luck. It also deals with indestructible creatures quite nicely.
Fabled Passage & Prismatic Vista- Seems strange but we're also playing Sensei's Divining Top and these two will help us shuffle up a new top three cards. There's something to be said about deck thinning, it's dubious, but it can be said.
Mobilized District - Again, creature lands come to the rescue from our scorched earth plan. for a 3/3 every attack is pretty steep, however even after a board wipe we're likely to be getting some discount. When we're ahead and trying to close out the game getting a 3/3 for or is not out of the question. The District also has vigilance so when we're done with attacks it's still a usable mana source.
Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper - The third forgotten land in the triumvirate of Boseiju, Who Shelters All & Hall of the Bandit Lord. This is the poor man's Ancient Tomb...the poor man who also happens to be playing a deck full of Legendary cards, which happens to be us. Cards on the table sometimes we're going to have to cross our fingers and hope that one of our opponents will play an Urborg or Yavamaya so we can get any mana out of it. When we do line up this land with our legendary cards we'll be enjoying that bit of extra ramp.
Ajani, Strength of the Pride -This is going to be repeated a few times in the card explanations. There's a lot of synergy between the different categories and some cards could go into multiple sub-categories. This is one of them. Ajani is try to leverage our life gain. The +1. Is usually not not the first thing we go for. -2 is the most common ability we'll be activating to protect this Ajani. The ultimate, let's just say when I said we wouldn't be trying to set off a Planeswalker's 0 right away, this is the exception. If this hits the battlefield and we have 55+ life we're wiping out our opponent's creatures and artifacts.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant - The original card:Elspeth, Knight-Errant(ALA)| Elspeth Planeswalker. Way back she was considered the best Placeswalker, until Jace, the Mind Sculptor came along. So what does she do? She has two +1 making somewhat unique. The first +1 gives us a soldier token that plays well with Skullclamp. If we want to go on the offence with her token, or anything else, her second +1 pumps and gives evasion. Her ultimate protects our non-Planeswalker permanents from destruction. Not unappealing in a deck with a large number of board wipes.
Elspeth Resplendent - Let's start with the final ability. It's underwhelming to fine in Commander. Her other two abilities are rather interesting. If we already have a creature out we can make it better with the +1. It also works surprisingly well with Luxior. Elspeth will give herself more loyalty an ability and +2/+2 (bravo on the synergy Wizards). The real juice is in her -3. Putting a permanent into play with a shield counter is no joke. And unlike Deploy the Gatewatch 2/3s of our deck's cards are hits. Could it be a land? Yes. Will it likely be better than a land? The way our deck is constructed likely, yes.
Karn, Scion of Urza - Cooperate Karn can help us dig for cards. We're mono-white so we take our card advantage where we can. He can also make X/X constructs to protect our Super Friends. We aren't a dedicated artifact deck but they can still grow to a reasonable size.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer - Occasionally seen in Legacy sideboards this is probably the weakest of our Walkers. The starting Loyalty is low. The Ultimate's a bad joke in a format with Cyclonic Rift. However, The +2 provides protection for one of our Walkers or combined with Skullclamp we another way to draw two cards. The -2 is the primary reason for this card. We can recover a lost Luxior or put a Helm of the Host on to the Battlefield for free. She'll never be the first choice when our Commander comes into play but, she has enough utility to deserve a spot. If she's okay we may make more room for other equipment.
Serra the Benevolent - She's a hedge against flyers (a place we're weak) and the plan is to use her three times. We want to be creating a Serra Angel token right off the bat. With it's vigilance we can play offence and defense. Then in an ideal series of turns we'll use her +2 and the turn after -3 to make a final Serra Angel and Serra the Benevolent will return to her Sanctum . She's niche but, fills that niche very well.
Teyo, the Shieldmage - Solid three drop. The -2 gives us a couple of good blockers and the passive ability helps to protect us.